Six errors doom Kirksville in 6-2 loss to Helias

Kirksville stranded 10 runners and committed six errors in the Tigers' 6-2 loss to Helias Tuesday at North Park in Kirksville.

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By Josh Rizzo

Kirksville Daily Express - Kirksville, MO

By Josh Rizzo

Posted Jun. 13, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jul 25, 2012 at 3:18 PM

By Josh Rizzo

Posted Jun. 13, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jul 25, 2012 at 3:18 PM

KIRKSVILLE – Adam Pennington, a 2012 Kirksville graduate, took a second and thought about it, but wasn’t sure when he last took the mound for a baseball game.

Pennington, who played primarily as a catcher during his high school career, made his first start ever during Kirksville summer baseball team’s 6-2 loss Tuesday against Helias at North Park. He struck out three batters, allowed three hits and four runs in five innings of work.

“I think I did pretty good, it’s the most I ever pitched,” Pennington said. “Five innings is the longest I’ve ever pitched, the most pitches I’ve ever thrown. It was different, but it was fun.”

Kirskville coach Travis Mundahl decided to throw Pennington because the Tigers have a tournament coming up this weekend in Springfield, Mo. Kirksville was supposed to play a doubleheader, but it was switched to one nine-inning game due to Helias’ lack of players.

“Adam threw very well today,” Mundahl said. “He did everything I asked him to do. He pounded the strike zone and he got people out. He gave us a chance to win this game and that’s all I asked him.”

Helias took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Todd Buchjost scored on a balk by Pennington. The Tigers went ahead 2-1 in the bottom of the first when Jonathan Broce scored on a balk and Nathan Lamp singled in Wyatt Anderson.

The Crusaders knotted the game at two in the second inning. Garrett Buschjost led off the inning with a walk and he advanced to third when Hayden Lee hit a grounder that was booted by Lamp. Buschjost would score when Christian Haire hit a ball to right field that was mishandled.

Kirksville (3-5) made six errors in the game, including at least one error in four of the five innings Helias scored in.

“That’s what we’ve struggled with so far this summer,” Mundahl said. “We’ve hit pretty well and we’ve pitched all right also. But our defense is where we need to step it up. Once these guys figure the defensive part out and put a whole game together they’ll be pretty good.”

Helias scored two more runs in the fifth inning to go ahead 4-2. Haire scored on a single by Todd Buschjost and Jordan Backus scored on a sacrifice fly by Cody Stegmann.

Helias added another run in the seventh inning off of Lamp and one more in the ninth off of Preston Miller.

Kirksville struggled to produce offense after the first inning and stranded 10 runners on base. The Tigers finished with five hits.

Mundahl said it was the first time this summer he felt Kirksville hasn’t had timely hitting.

Page 2 of 2 - “We’ll tip our cap to Helias,” Mundahl said. “Their pitchers pounded the zone all night long and they kept us off balance. We’re going to have some of those nights where we don’t get those big hits. We’ve been getting those hits all summer, we just didn’t get them tonight.”